Australian Music Foundation

The Australian Music Foundation UK is a charitable organisation based in London, which aims to promote and celebrate Australian musical life, by offering scholarships, performing opportunities and mentoring to young musicians who wish to pursue their post-graduate studies overseas.

DONATE to support our work

Since 1975 the AMF has helped over 200 awardees.

Some of our previous awardees have included Violinist Emily Sun (2015 awardee) who has gone on to win the 2018 ABC Young Performers Award in Sydney, and soprano Lauren Fagan recently appeared as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel at the ROH, Covent Garden, and represented Australia in the 2019 Cardiff Singer of the World. Soprano Samantha Clarke made her Opera Australia debut in January 2024, as Violetta in La Traviata. Other distinguished Alumni include baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, pianist Jayson Gillham, conductor Jessica Cottis, saxophonist Amy Dickson and guitarist Craig Ogden.

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The 2024 AMF Classical Awards

Applications for the 2024 AMF Classical Awards are:

OPEN FROM MONDAY, 25th MARCH 2024 and CLOSE FRIDAY, 3rd MAY 2024 (11:59 pm UK BST time).

The competition will take place entirely online and a link to the Application Form will be available from 25 March 2024 to 3rd May 2024.

We will hope to announce the results towards the end of July/early August.

Please visit the Apply for an Award page for more details and to register and apply.

VISit THE APPLY FOR AWARD PAGE

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See our latest NEWSLETTER by clicking Here

Join our MAILING LIST to receive news and invitations to our events (only 4 or 5 mailings per year).

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New AMF Administrator

Sally-Ann Shepherdson is moving on after 9 years as the Administrator for the Australian Music Foundation. On behalf of the Chairman and Trustees in the UK and Australia, we wanted to wish Sally-Ann the very best of luck with her future endeavours and thank her sincerely for her years of service.

We also would like to take the opportunity to welcome Glenn Horder as our new Administrator. Glenn will officially be taking over from the 18th March 2024. His email address is glenn@australianmusicfoundation.org and you can also contact the office as usual via info@australianmusicfoundation.org

(Sally-Ann will still be contactable for a few more weeks as she completes the handover to Glenn.)

Please get in touch if you have any queries or news you would like to pass on to us.

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The New AMF Richard Bonynge Award

The new AMF Richard Bonynge Award has been generously donated by distinguished pianist and conductor,
Richard Bonynge AC CBE.

Maestro Bonynge has been a Life President of the AMF for many years and we are extremely grateful for his wonderful gesture of support, which will enable us to present a substantial grant in his name to a candidate of exceptional ability and achievement within their chosen field of study.

It is our great pleasure to announce the inaugural winner of this prestigious award for 2023 - William Shi, accompanist and collaborative pianist. Please see below for details.

Photo: Maestro Bonynge with previous AMF awardees at Australia House, London.

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AMF Fund-Raising Lunch at West Green House

Sunday, 17th September 2023

The Australian Music Foundation held a special fund-raising lunch party on Sunday 17th September at West Green House near Hook in Hampshire. West Green is the home of Australian garden author and former Marketing Manager of the Sydney Opera House, Marylyn Abbott, who had generously offered to provide a five-course Sunday lunch with wines and music in her beautiful home, in aid of the AMF Awards Fund.

Since the pandemic, more and more young Australian musicians have struggled to find grants to support their studies overseas, and this event has helped us to increase the number of our awards for 2024, to help as many as possible to achieve their dreams.

West Green House is never open to the public, so this was a rare chance for a select number of guests to take in the atmosphere of this delightful Queen Anne property, and enjoy a very special lunch prepared by John Kahout, previously Head Chef of the Orient Express. Visit the West Green House website

After lunch, coffee was served and guests were treated to a short concert featuring AMF alumni - soprano Sky Ingram (Royal Opera, Opera North, Garsington Opera) and bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman (Opera Queensland, West Australian Opera) - who kindly donated their services for this important fund-raising event. skyingram.com / jeremykleeman.com

Later, our guests enjoyed a walk around the beautiful gardens and saw the lake where the West Green opera festival takes place each year. Thank you to all who donated for their tickets and helped to make the event such a wonderful success.